Daylight is Mine to Protect

Thoughts

I brandish my staff. "Don't come any closer."

Angor Rot stops and holds up his hands. He smiles wide. It's unnatural. Not like him.

"Why are you here? I'm not going back to Morgana. And I won't let you kill the Trollhunter."

He just keeps smiling. It's unnerving. 

"Why are you smiling? What are you doing here? Leave before I make you!"

Angor Rot doesn't move. It feels wrong to attack him when he hasn't done anything yet, so I continue observing him and our surroundings.

"If you're going to attack me, just do it!"

"Now, dear, why would I attack you?" asks a voice that is very much not Angor Rot's. I take a step back in shock. 

"M- Morgana?"

"Who else did you think it was?" Morgana smiles with Angor Rot's face. 

"Why are you here? Why are you possessing Angor Rot?" I take another step back, wondering if I could manage to take her out before she destroyed the property.

"I wanted to speak to you myself before the hoards came." She tilts his head. "I am intrigued why you choose to defend the Trollhunter."

"What you are doing is wrong. The Trollhunter protects the world from people like you."

"Wrong?" She laughs. "What is wrong about wanting to be free? To enact revenge on the person who imprisoned me?"

"You're planning on bringing the Eternal Night...."

"I am saving troll kind! For ages, trolls and humans have been on unequal ground because trolls could only live half of a day. With my power, they will finally be on equal footing!"

"A troll is already unequal to a human."

"And yet, who is hiding in the shadows?" She tsks. "I know you feel sympathy for the humans because you were born as one, but you should see how nature has been disrupted."

"You're the one disrupting nature!"

"I am nature!" She giggles. "I have existed since time first began!" She steps forwards. 

"Don't move!" I yell, raising my staff, morphing it into a bow, and pulling back the string. Emotions swim through me. "One step closer, and I'll shoot you."

"You would shoot poor Angor Rot when he has does nothing but be possessed by me?" She makes a pouty face. "What has Merlin done to you?"

"Merlin has made me realize I was living in hell!" I glare at her. "Your demonic shadow realm of a hell."

She snickers. "Is that what he said. Tell me, has life been any better here, hmm? Are you accepted? Do you live unafraid? Because I seem to remember that's how you lived in my realm."

"I'm doing fine, yes," I tell her.

"No doubt Merlin has been criticizing your every move," Morgana continues as if she hadn't heard me. "And lying to you more often than not, no doubt. And I doubt the Trollhunter trusts you. Or, if he does, he only does so out of fear. And Strickler," she cackles. "I've heard about your little falling out with him. Tell me, has that gotten any easier?"

"I don't mind him," I reply.

"I'm sure. Tell me, don't you think it's strange that you fear him? He's given you no reason to besides a Stalkling egg, which you know easily how to dispatch. No, I'm guessing your fear is from something else." She steps forward to look me closer in the eyes. "Say, your feeling of hatred? No, you don't hate him. You just hate the idea that he had the gall to attack you." She takes another step closer. "You want revenge. You want the world to burn before anyone tries to approach you again."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" I yell at her. 

"That's why you've been avoiding him, hoping he doesn't realize who you are." She keeps stepping closer, and I can't find it in myself to do anything about it.

"Stay back!" I say again, moving backward. I hit the wall of the house with the edge of my heel. 

"Because you know if he attacks you, you will justify retaliating. And, once you start fighting, you might not be able to stop."

"I said stay away!" I shout and release the arrow. I aim it for the floor in front of Angor-Morgana, creating an explosion that sends dust into the air. I transform my bow into a staff and step forward, ready to kick Morgana off the property. But, when the dust clears, she is gone.

The others come outside to see what happened soon enough. "What happened!" Jim exclaims as he and his mother stare at the new crater in their backyard. 

"It was Morgana." I am still staring at that same crater. "She was possessing Angor Rot."

"Did you kill Angor Rot?" asks Merlin.

"No."

He harumphs. "Then you should've gone with him to open up the portal. We need to open it as soon as possible before Morgana finishes building her army!"

"What?" I turn towards him. "What about the whole, 'army around Morgana when she wakes' thing? If I did it now, she would be surrounded by her own!"

"Wait, what's she talking about?" asks Jim. 

"Weren't you listening to what I was saying before?" Merlin questions. "We have the safeguard. Amber is the safeguard."

"Then why are we preparing to fight? If we have the safeguard, Morgana can't get out of her prison!"

Merlin shakes his head. "Morgana is cunning. She will either find a way to make Amber comply or she will find another solution to my safeguard. Better to let her out on our terms. And our terms are sooner rather than later."

"You knew she would do this," I realize.

He shrugs. "I had a hunch."

"If you had a hunch, why didn't you tell me?" I growl.

"You didn't need to know." That almost sends me over the edge. I carefully take control of my breathing. 

"Morgana has grown strong to be able to possess someone from the confines of her prison," I remark, trying my best to put my feelings aside. 

"She possessed Claire too just last week," Jim adds.

I start at this information. That explains Claire's hatred towards the Pale Lady. Being possessed is not fun. 

"All the more reason to defeat her now before her power grows out of control," Merlin points out.

"Or all the more reason to take back her power before she gets out," I argue.

"Is there a way to do that?" asks Barbara hopefully who is pulled away from gaping at the hole.

"It would be a fruitless effort," Merlin tells us. "One we cannot waste our time on if we hope to defeat Morgana."

I want to keep arguing, but I recognize Merlin's tone of voice: This isn't up for debate, though he may act like it is. I sigh and bite my tongue.